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The ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship is an annual event hosted by the International Surfing Association.

Nations compete as teams in SUP racing, SUP surfing and prone paddleboarding, with individual medals and overall team points awarded. Australia won the first three ISA Worlds in Peru (2012, 2013) and Nicaragua (2014), before Team USA swept the 2015 Worlds in Sayulita, Mexico. The Aussies reclaimed their title at the 2016 ISA Worlds in Fiji and defended it in Denmark 2017, both times narrowly edging out a strong French contingent.

The 2018 ISA Stand Up Paddleboarding World Championship will be held from November 23 – December 2 in Hainan, China. It was originally planned for Brazil.

The road to this year’s championships has been dirtied by a bitter power struggle between the ICF and ISA for control of Olympic stand up paddleboarding, which included the ISA’s legal blocking of the ICF’s new championshp event in Portugal. The general consensus from the SUP community is that neither federation is doing a particularly good job for the sport right now.

That’s the longest break I’ve taken in the seven years I’ve been running this site. I’ll talk about why next week, but for now let’s get this show back on the road. Because the reason why SUP Racer exists is to give you an honest look at what’s happening in this great, whacky, wild, rollercoaster sport of ours.

(I think the word “honesty” has been sorely lacking from our sport in general recently. That’s also another topic for next week, but for now here’s what’s happening the past 24 days: The 12 biggest stories, in no particular order…)

Instead of Brekkie Bites, consider this as your Breakfast Banquet. → READ MORE

Yesterday we took a look at Team Australia, the squad that will be seeking a mind-boggling sixth teams title (out of a possible seven) at the ISA Worlds in China later this month. I also did some light analysis of the lineup.

The big news is that Terrene Black and Shakira Westdorp will be competing in every single SUP discipline this year, both surfing and racing, as the two-time defending teams champions (and five-time overall winners) look to retain their title against Teams France and USA.

Here’s how the humble superstar is feeling about this year’s event… → READ MORE

The post stirred up plenty of debate as it spoke to a growing sense of frustration from the paddling community that the two federations care more about political games than the actual sport. “Selfish parents going through a bitter divorce” was the analogy.

In the end, the question didn’t seem to be “ICF or ISA” but rather: Do we need an international federation at all? And should we even bother chasing the Olympics in the first place? Is all this political BS really worth it?

SUP always has and probably always will be self-governing, so why do we even need an international governing body? Unless we desperately want to be in the Olympics (and neither federation has made the case why that would be such an amazing thing), then I don’t think we need either the ICF or ISA at this point.

But regardless of your take on the matter, it’s only fair to hear from the federations themselves. So immediately after posting the story, I shared it with the higher-ups in both federations and invited them to respond to the community.

We awoke this morning to news that the ICF’s upcoming championship event in Portugal has been canceled after a successful legal challenge from the ISA’s national affiliate in the country. It’s a disappointing outcome that has been met with a mix of disbelief and ambivalence from a SUP community that is now thoroughly sick and tired of the political saga being waged between these two Olympic federations.

The battle between the ICF (International Canoe Federation) and ISA (International Surfing Association) has been well publicised over the past 18 months ever since the canoe world launched a late bid to become the Olympic governing body of stand up paddleboarding. But while politics are a natural (though unfortunate) part of any sport, this saga is becoming utterly ridiculous.

What started out as a political dust-up between two organisations on the fringe of our sport has become an all-out propaganda war that risks engulfing the community. And the first casualty is going to be the sport itself.

The ICF and ISA are acting like selfish parents going through a messy divorce and arguing over custody of an adopted child. Nobody is asking what the child actually wants, and neither parent realises that their “child” moved out of home years ago anyway.

Here’s a great look at the Rei de Búzios, one of Brazil’s longest-running SUP races and something of a preview for this year’s ISA Worlds.

While we’re a little late in posting the vid (it went up two months ago), it’s worth taking a second look now because it’s not only a cool edit, this clip also previews what is [potentially] going to be the course for this year’s gold-medal marathon race in late November. → READ MORE

In brief: Brazil has made an almost perfect start to the 2017 Pan American Surf Games in Peru, an “ISA Worlds of the Americas” style event that also acts as a warm-up for the 2019 PanAm Games.

Young gun Guilherme dos Reis took gold just ahead of team mate Vinnicius Martins in yesterday’s beach race, while Lena Ribeiro Guimarães made it a double victory for Brazil in the women’s and Aline Adisaka picked up a bronze to put all four SUP racing team members on the opening podium of the event. → READ MORE

Time to brush up on your “bom dia”s and “obrigado”s — the International Surfing Association has just announced the host nation for next year’s ISA Worlds: Brazil.

The 2018 championship event – the 7th annual edition of the Worlds – will be hosted in Brazil late next year with the dates “tentatively” set for November 23 – December 1. The venue is the postcard-perfect resort town of Búzios, which sits on the coast about an hour north of Rio de Janeiro and has a long history of hosting domestic SUP races. → READ MORE

In brief: Lincoln Dews has taken out the second race of the Aussie Titles on the Gold Coast today, winning the beach race ahead of James Casey and yesterday’s marathon champ Michael Booth to secure a spot on Team Australia for the fifth time in six years.

It was pretty close between the top three guys all the way, but Linc showed why his runner-up finish at the PPGs beach race was no fluke to add another national title to his collection. Yesterday’s runner-up, Matt Nottage, was kept down in fifth after the unheralded Ty Judson snuck onto the top four podium with a determined effort. → READ MORE

France has highlighted yet again why it’s considered a powerhouse in the world of paddling, with the French National Titles showcasing an incredible depth of talent as a mix of superstars and young guns shared the podiums on the weekend.

Held in the Mediterranean town of Cap d’Agde, the 2017 edition of the “Championnat de France de Stand Up Paddle” produced four new champions, with Martin Vitry, Titouan Puyo, Melanie Lafenetre and Amandine Chazot sharing the spoils and staking a claim for a spot on Team France at the 2018 Worlds. → READ MORE

Team Australia has fended off a double attack to retain their overall teams title here at the ISA Worlds in Denmark, winning the relay on the final morning of competition to seal overall victory ahead of determined squads from France and New Zealand.

Quite fittingly, the top three placings in the team relay matched the final overall team standings, with Australia securing their fifth title in the six years of the ISA Worlds after a brave French attack fell agonisingly short, while New Zealand was also within striking distance all week but couldn’t quite close the gap. → READ MORE

You can now watch a full replay of the epic ‘beach race’ finals that went down here in Cold Hawaii today.

Relive the crazy finish to the men’s race, where Mo Freitas edged out team mate Connor Baxter in a photo finish, as well as the women’s showdown where Annabel Anderson put on a masterclass to claim her second gold. → READ MORE

Here are the overall team standings with only one event – the team relay – left on the schedule.

After the French were looking good for the team gold all week, defending champs Team Australia – the nation that has only ever lost this trophy once in the past five years – has edged ahead on the penultimate day of competition, thanks largely to the Green & Gold’s supreme dominance in the prone.

Mo Freitas has surged to an extraordinary and quite emotional victory on finals day in Cold Hawaii following a “you couldn’t script this” photo finish with team mate and close friend Connor Baxter, as Team Hawaii plucked an incredible gold-silver result from an intense and exciting beach race here on the penultimate day of the 2017 ISA Worlds.

Mo battled hard the entire race to finally get a shot at Connor, who had controlled the tempo from the first buoy to the final lap of the gold medal decider along with defending champ Casper Steinfath, in the final 50 metres of this frantic and fast-paced affair. → READ MORE

Annabel Anderson has once again cemented her status as the world’s best paddler after a powerful performance in the ‘beach race’ final here at the ISA Worlds in Cold Hawaii, Denmark today.

The Kiwi was too strong for Olivia Piana (silver for France), Terrene Black (bronze for Australia) and Fiona Wylde (copper for Team USA), matching her victory in last weekend’s marathon and earning Team New Zealand a second gold medal and valuable points on the leaderboard of nations. → READ MORE